May, 2024 - Channel 5 Belize

Belizean Man Convicted in Texas for Illegal Re-entry

A Belizean man, previously deported from the U.S., is returning to prison after a federal jury in Del Rio found him guilty of illegally re-entering the country.

Francis Kerr, also known as Francis Deon Flowers, 51, was apprehended by border patrol near Eagle Pass on August 22, 2023. Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced his conviction for illegal re-entry.

Kerr was deported in 2009 after serving a 17-year sentence for robbery and assault. Despite his efforts to re-enter the U.S., a trial revealed his criminal history, including two counts of 2nd-degree robbery, four counts of assault with a firearm, and conspiracy to commit robbery, all stemming from his time in Los Angeles.

U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza of the Western District of Texas announced the case, highlighting the collaboration between Customs and Immigration Services and the U.S. Border Patrol in tackling illegal immigration.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul Markovits and Joshua Garland prosecuted the case, underscoring that evading deportation orders and re-entering the country illegally will result in severe consequences. Kerr now faces another prison term, reaffirming that violating U.S. laws to escape a criminal past is futile.

Official Start of the 2024 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season

June 1st marks the official beginning of the 2024 hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin, which includes the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. This season runs from June 1st to November 30th each year, though tropical cyclones can occasionally form outside this period.

The 2024 forecast predicts above-normal tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic Basin, with expectations of 17 to 25 named storms. Out of these, eight to 13 are anticipated to become hurricanes, and four to seven are likely to reach major hurricane status (Category 3 or stronger). Typically, an average Atlantic season comprises 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.

Two main factors are expected to influence the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season:

High likelihood of La Niña: Developing during the peak of the season, this phenomenon is likely to enhance tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic Basin.
Warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures: These temperatures are expected to provide more energy, fueling tropical cyclone development.

What Does this Mean for Belize?

While seasonal predictions indicate the expected activity level of a hurricane season, they do not specify the timing or path of individual hurricanes. Belize, being in a region vulnerable to tropical cyclones, must remain prepared each year regardless of the forecast. Whether one or more of the 17 to 25 named storms predicted this season will impact Belize is uncertain, but preparedness is crucial.

A Million Dollars for Immediate Fire Relief

Wildfires continue to burn across Toledo and Cayo districts. With no rains forecasted in these areas, at least for the next few days, residents will continue to remain on high alert. Prime Minister John Briceño says his administration is doing everything it possibly can to put out the fires and assist victims. We spoke with the prime minister following today’s house meeting where he informed reporters that one million dollars have been set aside from government’s five-million-dollar contingency fund to offer immediate relief to fire victims in both districts. P.M. Briceño also touched on the issue of slash and burn, which is believed to be one of the primary causes of these fires. He, like the Area Representative for Toledo East said last week, believes that the method should be done away with and replaced with a safer farming practices. Here is what he told reporters.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think the first thing we need to accept is that the way we do things ten years ago, twenty years ago can no longer happen. The issue of slash and burn is something of the past. Now in agriculture we have to be using science and technology. I like to use the story of my grandfather who was a hundred and two years old and he was a subsistence farmer. He knew when it was time to fall bush, when it was time to burn and time to plant. But if he was alive today, he would be totally confused because things have changed dramatically. So the first lesson is that we have to understand that we cannot continue the ways of the old. We have to do better. What have we been doing, well we have been doing a lot of work. I need to give credit to our ministers, they have been on the ground not profiling but actually working, mobilizing resources and it is almost like all hands-on deck. All the different ministries that can help, from Human Development, Housing, MIDH, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry. All of us are on board. But at the same time, we quickly realize that this was not a fire like other times so we needed to declare it a national disaster. By doing that we can then access international resources. We have wrote to the IDB and CABIE and both of them have already responded that they are going to assist us. We are using some resources from the contingency fund in the budget. WE have five million dollars aside for emergencies. So in Cabinet we decided we will be using a million dollars. We know that this is not enough, but this is just to get things going in the meantime. But we know that we have to be looking at food, that many of our farmers up to Tuesday, I don’t think we had any houses burning down, but we knew that a lot of them their milpas burn down, some of them their corn houses burn down. So we are working with human development and agriculture to see what is the best way to do something that is sustainable.”

Eight Million Dollars in Losses Due to Wildfires

And the losses have only increased since our visit to Toledo last week. According to Andre Perez, the minister responsible for the National Emergency Management Organization, an estimated eight million dollars in losses have been recorded due to forest fires. A total of two hundred and fifty families, or more than one thousand individuals, have been affected. Today, residents in at least three communities in Toledo were out battling fires that posed a threat to their livelihood. Here is more from Minister Perez.

Andre Perez, NEMO Minister

“Our initial damage assessment report indicates that two hundred and fifty families have been affected by the raging fires and these numbers continue to rise every day. Several hundred acres of farmlands have been destroyed by raging fires. I was told last night; two homes were lost in the Blue Creek area of the Stann Creek district. Today there are still communities at risk to these fires. Last night San Miguel, Silver Creek and Blue Creek were fighting these flames. We have reports as far north as Altun Ha and as far west in Benque Viejo. In the Mountain Pine Ridge, over ten thousand hectares of forest have been affected by wildfires. This is thirty-four thousand acres of land. The initial DANA is showing up to eight million dollars in damages so far. The full impact on agriculture remains unassessed due to the ongoing threat of wildfires and the unrelenting hot and dry weather condition. The full impact will only be understood when we analyses not only the damages but the loses our people have suffered.”

Response of Government to Fires Inadequate

Leader of the Opposition, Moses “Shyne” Barrow is criticizing the government for its response to this natural disaster. Barrow says that the government has not responded adequately. Here is what he had to say during today’s House meeting as he recounted his recent trip to Toledo where he visited affected families.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“I would like to discuss, bring to the nation’s attention concerns from the people in Toledo district. I had the pleasure of visiting there over the last couple weeks and when I was there the wildfires really reached its peak and there was a state of emergency declared. But what is happening in Toledo east and west brings into sharp focus the failures of the Briceno administration, and I would like to present these faults for corrective measure. We need as a government, as a nation to become policy oriented. We need as a government to anticipate these emergencies and be ready. We know it is dry season, traditionally the farmers across the country are preparing the farm and land for planting crops and to have the type of devastation taking place, it really is devastating not just to the people in Toledo, but to the economy. And the response is the concern Mr. Speaker. We cannot prevent natural disasters. We cannot stop wild fires but we can respond accordingly Mr. speaker and when I visited Trio village in Toledo East, about four families, I have gotten the chance to see their homes completely destroyed. And, the response of the government is completely inadequate.”

NEMO Receives Donation from USAID to Fight Wildfires

Also in Belmopan earlier today, the National Emergency Management Organization received a donation of equipment from the United States Embassy to be used in fighting wildfires across the country. On hand to receive the items was NEMO Coordinator, Daniel Mendez.

Daniel Mendez, Coordinator, NEMO

“This donation was received from the U.S. Embassy through USAID. This equipment is firefighting equipment that we will be issuing, that we will be sending out to work in the communities. These include water tanks, they include pumps and hoses in order for us to provide faster access to water for the firefighting equipment. There are also small machineries such as trimmers and chainsaws which will be needed to continue that work of clearing fire paths around affected areas in each of the villages. So a significant amount will be going to Toledo. As you may be aware that there has been significant flare ups of fires there and this is where that help is needed. We will also mobilize other units to other parts of the country in anticipation of more fires. The general outlook for weather doesn‘t look promising for us. We don‘t anticipate rain for another few days which means that the risk of fire still remains high. So we remain on alert. Teams have been deployed from all over, so the Belize Defense Force has mobilized. We have villagers working alongside the different ministries. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development is working with bulldozers creating fire paths. We also have other N.G.O.s who have been contributing, so it‘s really a big effort in really trying to control all of these fires across the country. The efforts continue, we continue to work and we monitor these day and night and our teams have been out going up to two weeks now. So it‘s been a big operation and hopefully, we‘re able to soon when the rains come.”

More Load Shedding as B.E.L. Faces Challenges Providing Electricity

Belize continues to face an energy crisis, despite B.E.L. being able to bring online the gas turbine at its Mile Eight facility. Earlier today, the senior management of Belize Electricity Limited. met with reporters and provided an update on the challenges that the utility company is presently grappling with. Those issues have been brought on by extreme temperatures and damage to B.E.L.’s infrastructure. To make matters worse, the company is unable to receive energy from C.F.E. when power lines and other infrastructure are out of service. So what does this mean for customers? B.E.L.’s General Manager for Employee and Corporate Services, Dawn Sampson-Nunez says that more load shedding can be expected in the days ahead.

Dawn Sampson-Nunez, General Manager, B.E.L.

“The challenges that we’re experiencing with respect to generation supply, it is one that we can get through as a community. We can get through it in terms of support from the community in the form of energy conservation. Having said that, a number of issues and each of them we have to manage. As you would have heard earlier from our C.E.O., so there is climate change, it’s an issue that is being experienced worldwide. We’re experiencing extreme temperatures, dry weather conditions. That’s having an impact on our infrastructure. So, a number of the outages that would have been experienced, I believe, in particular up north is a result of the weather. There’s damage to the infrastructure. When that occurs, there are issues with respect to being able to take energies from C.F.E. and of course being able to then do some readjustments to ensure that we can meet the demand on the other side of wherever that damage occurs.”

When will Belize’s Energy Crunch be Alleviated?

Compounding the energy crunch are technical difficulties being experienced by BELCOGEN which uses biomass to provide electricity. Also, in the days ahead, BAPCOL, another energy supplier to the national grid, will be doing systematic repairs to its machines. As we’ve said, this means more load shedding.

Dawn Sampson-Nunez, General Manager, B.E.L.

“The challenge here is weather-related damages to the transmission system and as a result we then need to source more energy from the hydroelectric facilities. That then is causing a reduction in the water levels at the hydro facilities and so that’s a situation that we need to manage going forward. The other challenge that we’re dealing with here is BELCOGEN. BELCOGEN has notified us that they’re experiencing some technical difficulties with their infrastructure. They have indicated to us that they should be offline for about two weeks. So that’s one challenge that we’re managing there. BAPCOL, as well, they have notified us that they need to carry out some very urgent maintenance repairs on their machines. We currently get about, I think it’s about twenty-two or so megawatts from BAPCOL. There are about three machines that supply us with power from BAPCOL. They will be taking out one unit at a time and each time they take out a unit it’s about two days they’ve indicated to us they will need to be offline. So again, we’re managing the situation at BAPCOL. The situation with BELCOGEN, they expect to be out for about two week. It is possible that they can come back before, as well, it might take a little longer. We’re managing the weather-related outages, the impact that it’s having on our transmission system. So, in a nutshell, where we are at this point in time is that there may be the need for load shedding from time to time.”

B.E.L. Says Customers Should Also Conserve Energy

According to Sampson-Nunez, customers also have an important role to play in conserve energy. The General Manager for Employee and Corporate Services says that energy conservation will reduce the likelihood of load shedding.

Dawn Sampson-Nunez, General Manager, B.E.L.

“The more greater the effort is to conserve energy then the less likely it is for load shedding, or at least to the areas that can be or that would be affected, would be smaller areas.”

Karique Marin, Manager, B.E.L.

“From the current time, from now to June fifteenth, what we’re looking at is trying to manage the varying independent power producers across the country to ensure that we can serve as much customer as possible. What we are doing is to try to minimize the load shedding. We are working with our large customers to ask them to provide support, so they would go on generators so that we minimize the load shedding, do not have as much load shedding during that period. Our aim, of course, is to supply every customer, all times throughout the day; however, as the generators across the country experience issues, we do, from time to time, have to have these load shedding. Our plan, of course, is to work with all customers, try to get our gas turbine in San Pedro on line which is currently projected for June fifteenth. Once that comes on line, it gives us an additional twenty megawatts, a little bit of breathing space; however, the hydroelectric dams are reducing their output.”

Belize’s Energy Demand Hit Record 127 Megawatts

As the nation continues to grapple with an energy crisis, it may appear as if there is no end in sight and that Belizeans will have to endure many more hot days and nights without electricity. Well, Michel Chebat, the Minister of Energy, says the Briceno administration is putting things in place for the short and long term, as he sought to provide some reassurance to the public. Here is what he said inside the National Assembly.

Michel Chebat, Minister of Energy

“As we reflect on the electricity sector in the past couple of months. We can see how climate change has impacted our lives. On the fourth of April the Phillip Goldson International Airport recorded a new high temperature of a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Last week there was a new record high for electricity demand of a hundred and twenty-seven megawatts caused by the increased use of ACs and fans to deal with insufferable heat and the electricity demand is expected to grow to a hundred and thirty-five megawatts in June, levels never before seen in our country. This extended heatwave and drought has brought the levels of our hydro facilities to critical low levels. These events reinforce the considerations that went into the new energy policy that was approved last year. The policy has a clear vision of how we will take action to increase our renewable energy penetration from fifty-three percent to seventy-five percent by 2030 and by adding a hundred and sixty megawatts of new generation to the grid. This increase will meet our future demands which is expected to be at a hundred and sixty-three megawatts based on current trends. A couple weeks ago I traveled with the honorable prime minister to Cancun where we met with the Mexican president to discuss the supply of electricity to Belize. Mexico is committed to assisting us and we have the assurance that after the second of June the electricity from C.F.E. will stabilize and in addition we will extend the supply from C.F.E. by twenty-five megawatts more.”